A Closer Look at Mason's Center for Regional Analysis

The Center for Regional Analysis, housed in the Schar School of Policy and Government on Mason’s Arlington campus functions as a local research center focusing on areas such as economics, transportation infrastructure, workforce capacity, demographics, and housing in the DMV. The center provides research reports, available on their website, as well as technical assistance and suggestions to aid in the future growth and success of the region.

The center has been providing understandable and usable data on the region for more than 20 years. As a result, the center’s faculty are a highly trusted resource for the media, speakers for local businesses, and at government summits. The center was formed in 1993 in an attempt to spearhead research in the areas of intersection of policy and economic development. It wasn’t long before the center had established itself as the final word on latest trends and the gold standard for local data and analysis.

Director of the center Terry Clower hopes to expand the center’s reach by studying and showing the region’s impact on a broader statewide level, as well as within national and global contexts. “It’s critical to expand our work to best understand the region’s economic competitiveness in our globally connected environment,” said Clower.

As the DMV continues to grow as a power source for the economy and a home for many families, the center’s research is more important than ever. The hope is ultimately to get the center endowed.